Torn
by White Thestral
Summary: You...What the hell are you? Yusuke spat angrily. Serenity flinched slightly, answering, I am a mistake of nature, something even the gods condemn...you wouldn't understand. AU YYHxSM


Just...don't ask, okay? Just don't ask where this came from, and you won't run away screaming with your eyeballs falling out of your head to call the cops and get them to put a restraining order on me that keeps me from ever coming near a computer again.

Disclaimer: I only own Kurai, and I don't want him anyway because he gives me headaches with his noisy cackling and insane plots. (looks hopeful) Do you want him? He's free! (receives cricket sounds) Damn.

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"Phew!" Yusuke Urameshi collapsed onto the ground. A fresh onslaught of demons surged forward, causing the Spirit Detective to groan in aggravation. "Aw, come on, man, no more!"

Hiei spared the teenager only a quick, cranky glare. Kurama slowly got up from his kneeling position, but not before sending a faint half-smile over at his friend. The young fighter was a source of never-ending amusement for the fox-turned-human.

"Psh, pipe down and take it like a man, Urameshi!" Yusuke's orange-haired ex-rival, Kuwabara, yelled at him. The black-haired boy rolled his eyes and tuned out his best friend in favor of powering up his Spirit Gun and firing it to take out a third of the demons. The rest quickly met their end at Hiei and Kuwabara's swords, as well as Kurama's thorny whip.

"Geez," Yusuke muttered, working a kink out of his neck. "That better be the last of them. What idiot went and tore open a hole to Demon World?" (AN: What idiot did go and rip open a hole to Demon World? We don't know. Why? It's not important, I just couldn't think up a very good fight scene.)

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"Oh, trust me Urameshi, this is far from over," the demon known as Kurai murmered, lightly tapping the screen next to Yusuke's face. With a knowing smile, he shut off the tv-like device. He looked like a twenty-something pale-skinned young man, with long blue-black hair and cool, calculating golden eyes. The only thing was, normal twenty-something young men do not have human bones intermixed with the tie to their long braid, and normal young men do not have a wicked twist to their mouth and malicious glee reflecting in their eyes.

The Spirit Detectives were definitely a nuisance. While they had done nothing directly to Kurai, it was best they be taken out as quickly as possibly. Kurai was a practical demon, and he knew that if you ignored a minor irritation it would either vanish on it's own or grow into a major vexation. The Spirit Detectives had the potential to be great, and Kurai knew it was only a matter of time before he became one of their targets. Someone knocked at the door, breaking the demon out of his musings.

"Master Kurai? Experiment thirty-two has been taken from the tank," a servant called through the closed door. "Dr. Kiyomaru says she seems to be in perfect health." A vicious grin stretched across Kurai's pale features, and he stood up, sweeping out the door impressively and down to the lab.

Dr. Kiyomaru, a slender dark-haired, brown-eyed, rather human-looking demon except for the purple gem imbedded in his forehead, looked up and nodded shortly to his master when he saw the demon, then went back to making notes on his clipboard. Kurai resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his employee's lack of response. He slapped his hands down on the table, causing the other demon to look up and give him a death glare, which Kurai pointedly ignored.

"Where is experiment thirty-two?" he demanded shortly, in no mood for pleasantries. Kiyomaru waved his hand irritably at one of the operating tables on the far side of the room.

"She's over there, but you're wasting your time if you want to get a reaction out of her. She hasn't so much as blinked since we took her out of the tank."

This time Kurai really did roll his eyes before he moved toward the table the doctor had indicated. Trust Kiyomaru to have a cynical outlook on the latest experiment with the best chance for survival. Not that he could blame the younger demon-- thirty-one failed experiments in a row, and one of them had mutated horribly, escaped and was now running around Demon World unchecked.

And there she was-- experiment thirty-two, the product of all his hard work, crouched listlessly on the cold metal of the table, dressed only in white tunic that went halfway down to her knees. The 'offspring', more or less, of the combined blood of the four members of Koenma's Spirit Detective team.

She looked no more than three or four, in human terms. She was pale, with a shimmering mass of long silver hair that had recently been combed, still wet from the tank that she had been 'born' in. Her large silvery-blue eyes held nothing in their depths. No spark, just nothing. Kurai frowned. Had they failed yet again? It was all well and good to have a perfectly functioning body, but there was only so much you could teach something that didn't respond you. The demon reached forward to cup the girl's chin and turn her head toward him, but a clipboard came out of nowhere and smacked his hand. Kurai yelped, yanking the assaulted appendage back and rubbing it while glaring at Kiyomaru, who glared right back.

"No touching," Kiyomaru snapped. "Her bones are still brittle from the tank, and I'll be damned if this one gets messed up because you were too stupid to not watch your strength."

Kurai grumbled, but he couldn't argue with that logic. Instead, he moved around the table so he could peer into her eyes. At first, there was no reaction, but after a moment the experiment lifted her head and stared back.

"I'm guessing this is only a temporary condition," Kiyomaru said, leaning over to look at the girl as well. "She did jump when you started your caterwauling, so that proves she is somewhat aware of what goes on around her." Kurai nodded absently.

"She seems so calm. Not afraid, just waiting, so...serene," he remarked. Delicately, he laid two fingers against her cheek. Her silvery eyes watched him, waiting for him to make his move. "I think her name will be...Serenity. What say you, little one?" Kurai asked softly. Kiyomaru looked like he wanted to smack the older demon with his clipboard again for not listening to a word he said, but held his tongue, because he was curious enough to see if the girl really would respond.

For a long moment, there was nothing. Then...her lips curled up in a small smile.

_Eleven months later..._

Kurai folded his hands in front of him, leaning back slightly as he studied the young girl in front of him. To his delight, the demon had found out that Serenity had a faster aging process than say, humans or demons. Kiyomaru had guessed that Serenity's combined blood was trying to pull her closer to her 'fathers' ages, and that it would slow down after she reached the human equivalent of fourteen or fifteen. Right now, she looked like a ten, eleven year-old if she was lucky. A damn _frail_ looking ten year-old, but it was there that her advantage lay. Serenity's 'fragility' was shield for a very strong, fierce, dependable and powerful warrior.

"You know what is expected of you," Kurai stated at last, wording his sentences carefully. "And you know that I don't hold to any of that 'fight to the death no matter what' nonsense." He shrugged apologetically at the insulted look Serenity flashed at him. The girl had more sense than that, but it never hurt to make sure. "If you are injured, or if you feel that circumstances are not good, or you begin to malfunction, _come straight back_. It would be a crime and a waste for one as young and with as much potential as you have to throw it away because you didn't know when to stop."

"Yes, sir," Serenity responded coolly. Kurai sighed, then leaned forward. He hadn't expected to grow fond of the little sprat, but there you have it. Fate was probably rolling on it's ass laughing, wherever it was now. Kurai firmly pushed those thoughts away, and then plunged on ahead.

"Can you kill...Yusuke?" he asked carefully. This was only procedure, but he had to do it nevertheless. Any attachment she may have formed to any of the Spirit Detectives had to be squashed quickly and ruthlessly. What better way to do it than reminding Serenity she had to kill all of them, that this was her very purpose for being created? Nonetheless, Kurai saw her pupils dilate slightly, heard her sharp intake of breath before she slowly let it out.

"Yes," the silver-haired girl said softly. Serenity knew the drill. It had started immediately after she had begun to train, and she was to answer with conviction and without hesitation. _May as well be dead if you harbor feelings for the enemy._

"What about Kuwabara?" He saw her flinch faintly. Serenity despised killing humans, because most of them didn't have the power to defend themselves anyway. This particular human, while a challenge, was still only a human, and Serenity, despite Kurai and Kiyomaru's best coaching, had always harbored a bit of a soft spot for humans. It couldn't really be helped, as there was human blood in her veins. Kurai had considered leaving Kuwabara's blood out of the experiments entirely-- he vaguely remembered being worried that the human's mental capacity would be passed on to his 'children'-- but Kiyomaru had pointed out there was a very slim chance of that, and the human's spiritual abilities were very strong, a must-have for the experiments. So he had given in.

"Of course," Serenity said brusquely, her eyes not so much as flickering on this one. She comforted herself in the knowledge that he was a human, humans were fragile, and a sharp blow to the right place would instantly kill him without any suffering whatsoever. Cold comfort, but the experiment took what she could.

"Kurama?" Kurai questioned calmly. The silver-haired girl nodded a sharp affirmative, her silvery eyes misting over slightly, momentarily pleading with the older demon to stop. He ignored that plea, steeling himself for the last one.

"And Hiei?" he inquired brutally. This time Kurai did see her flinch, which was quickly hidden. Of all her 'fathers', Hiei was the one that Serenity would have the most difficulty slaying, be it because of emotional attachments or his remarkable fighting skills. However, Kurai had no doubt that Serenity could defeat the fire apparition if she put her mind to it. And that was all that was required.

"Yes. I can," she said quietly, almost defeatedly, because in the end, that was what it would come to.

"You're still not ready," Kurai said, hiding his disappointment expertly. Serenity's shoulders drooped a little, more because of his disapproval than her eagerness to fight. "However... there is a job I want you to do. Here is your target-- eliminate her." The demon pulled a picture out of one of the drawers in his desk and handed it to the girl. From the way her eyes flared and the way her fist tightened on the picture, Serenity didn't like what she saw.

"And what purpose would this be to, sir?" she inquired, still polite, but with a razor edge to her tone.

"That is not relevant at the moment," Kurai said dismissively. "Now go."

Serenity bowed her head slightly, then turned on heel and stalked angrily out of his office. She passed Kiyomaru on her way out, who stood aside and watched her as she walked down the hall. With a sigh, the younger demon shut the door and gave Kurai a sharp glare.

"All right, what did you do, say, imply, or all of the above?" Kiyomaru demanded, striding forward to glare at his master over the desk. Kurai glanced at the clipboard the brown-eyed youth held in his hand. Or, as Serenity had once put it, the Clipboard from Hell that they had all become personally acquainted with one too many times. Kurai privately speculated that Kiyomaru could lay the entire Demon World to waste with his clipboard if he was angry enough.

"Are you going to hit me with that thing if I don't tell you?" the older demon asked warily.

"Most assuredly," Kiyomaru said promptly. Kurai winced. He'd been afraid the younger demon would say that.

So he told him. And Kiyomaru hit him anyway. Several times actually, because the doctor did not particularily care for Kurai's plan, but he did agree in the end (grudgingly, bitterly) that it was necessary.

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"Keiko?"

"Hm?" The brown-eyed girl glanced over her shoulder at Botan, who was eyeing her worriedly.

"Is something the matter? You keep looking over your shoulder..." the blue-haired ferry girl trailed off. Keiko shook her head, her large brown eyes slightly worried nonetheless.

"It's nothing., it's just-- I feel like someone's watching us," Keiko admitted, feeling slightly embaressed.

"Well, I don't see anything," Botan said cheerfully.

"You're right," Keiko murmured. "It must have been my imagination."

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_Damnit, this is not the way I wanted to spend my afternoon!_ Serenity groused angrily, glaring spitefully down at the two apparently unaware young women, sitting on a park bench eatng ice cream. It didn't help her nerves that Keiko kept glancing over her shoulder a lot, making Serenity crouch even lower on the top of the building on which she was currently perched. It wouldn't take a genius to realize what she was doing up here with a bow and arrow in her hands, pointing them at one of the two women.

The experiment wasn't particularily keen on killing the defenseless, and that's what Keiko was. Frail, helpless-- but only if you weren't in slapping range. Then you may as well just roll over and die. Serenity grinned faintly, knowing perfectly well that she was stalling and not caring one bit.

Her lips twisted regretfully-- did she really have to do this? It was sheer nonsense, what Kurai had ordered her to do. Killing Keiko would only serve to anger Yusuke, and Serenity did not want that anger directed at her. Not just because of how harmful it could be to her, but because--

_No!_ this silver-haired girl told herself sternly. _You've been over this a hundred thousand times, and you know what you have to do. Wanting Yusuke's affection-- or for that matter, ANY of their affection, will only make this harder, make it hurt more when the moment comes. You know this._

Oh, she did, definitely. That didn't mean she had to like it, though. Mentally steeling herself and shoving all her emotions aside, Serenity stilled her shaking hands, drew the bowstring back to her ear, and took aim at Keiko's unprotected throat.

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White: BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAAA! Cliffie!

Kurai: You're mean, you know that?

White: (looks insulted) Of course I do! How could I not?

Kiyomaru: (rolls eyes and bops both of them on the head with his clipboard)

White/Kurai: OW!

Kiyomaru: Please ignore them, it's only the chocolate talking, and please review!


End file.
